Hochul Veto of Emergency Contract Transparency Bill Invites Abuse of Tax Dollars

Reinvent Albany sharply disagrees with Governor Hochul’s veto of a widely supported bill (S06941/A07404) requiring NYS agencies and authorities to publish contracts that have been exempted from review by the Office of the State Comptroller.

We believe the governor’s veto is clearly a mistake that exposes taxpayers to potentially huge amounts of waste, fraud and abuse from emergency contracts rushed through without even minimal independent oversight. We note that this basic spending transparency bill was supported by the Comptroller, passed the Senate and Assembly with overwhelming bipartisan support and was backed by prominent budget and transparency watchdog groups.

Reinvent Albany thanks Senator Cooney and Assemblymember Solages for their leadership sponsoring this bill and we appreciate Comptroller DiNapoli’s statement that the Office of the State Comptroller will “continue to push for this important reform.”

For more details on Reinvent Albany’s support for emergency contract transparency, please take a look the December 12, 2023 letter sent by budget watchdogs to Governor Hochul.

Unfortunately, too much spending is exempt from the Comptroller’s prior approval. More concerning, many contracts exempt from OSC oversight are also exempt from competitive procurement rules. This year’s enacted budget included dozens of exemptions to sections 112 (prior approval) and 163 (competitive bidding) of State Finance Law. As a result, State agencies and authorities can spend and contract billions of dollars without oversight or best-value procurement rules, allowing potentially wasteful or corrupt spending.